The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 567: Gap Between Dreams

Hmph, I still manage to probe something out of Justice.

In the “Three Secrets” ritual, the holder of the name “Ingrid” was in a secret relationship with “Frederick”.

Then, Ingrid seemed to die because of something behind it.

On the other hand, Justice had a crush on her.

…So this is not the 7th Class [1], but the Minato Class [2]?

—Are you Brother Obito [3] now?

However, depending on the situation, at least “Lin” was not killed by “Kakashi”. Otherwise, Justice probably wouldn’t be so polite to Frederick.

Why, though, secret lover?

Annan frowned slightly.

Is it because of the Melvin family?

As a member of the Melvin Family, especially the famously talented youth, he was second only to the direct blood of Eugene Melvin in the queue of succeeding in the position of “the Divine of the World”.

Frederick’s marital problems were not something Annan could decide on his own.

In Annan’s understanding, the Melvin family was a pure-blooded wizard. All people with the surname Melvin would undergo a talent test before they were born. Without wizard talent, the baby would be aborted. The Melvin family would only marry other wizards and continue the purification of the Melvin family’s bloodline.

Girls who married into the family and boys who joined through marriage were almost certain to give birth to wizards in the next generation. As long as they received the proper education and did not fall victim to nightmares or excessive erosion that disrupted their promotion and evolution, they would inevitably advance to the Silver Rank.

Annan had seen the most outstanding achievement of the Melvin family in Nightmare: White Tower, Eugene Melvin.

Eugene was the first to discover that “Master Michelangelo might not have died in the White Tower”. He even found out from the very beginning that Michelangelo, as the tower master, could actually leave the wizard tower.

Michelangelo even had to communicate with Eugene Melvin in advance to let him enter this ritual. At that time, Annan thought that it was because Michelangelo was afraid of Eugene that he killed Eugene. The purpose was to prevent his ascendancy ritual from being disturbed.

Indeed, Eugene Melvin of the Silver Rank was capable of interfering with this ritual that had spanned several years.

However, in hindsight, Eugene might have volunteered to work with the Man in the Mirror.

Michelangelo could not really kill Eugene without using spells. This was undoubtedly an extremely risky and low-return move to make, but Eugene Melvin did die.

But as the next head of the Melvin Family, wouldn’t this incur the wraith of the Melvin Family?

How could that be possible?

Adding on to the oddities of Frederick, whether it was the mission introduction or Justice’s words, Annan could infer that Frederick knew nothing about the Tragedy Writer and was not interested.

How could such a person become the “Professor Wolf”, who troubled the Austere-Winter Dukedom?

There was a sense of incongruity in this nightmare.

It was like Annan had forgotten something important.

However, Annan couldn’t recall it.

“Wait a moment.” Annan said softly.

At this moment, Annan’s footsteps stopped abruptly.

The surrounding gradually fogged up.

Justice also stopped immediately. He raised his right arm to signal Annan to hide behind him.

This fog is outrageous.

Annan thought.

—I’m afraid there will be a boss.

Annan raised his hand, lightly patted Justice’s back, and hid his figure behind Justice.

Or, to be more precise, due to the significant height difference between the two, the place Annan patted was from a position close to Justin’s waist after getting closer to Justice.

“Anyone here?”

The Shield of Unfallen, Justice asked softly.

His left hand silently held the throwing axe at his waist—yes, his weapon was not a shield, but an axe.

“Careful.” Annan whispered.

He saw a red figure appearing about eighty meters away.

Yes, the figure was red and bright—

The figure was marked by his curse “angel’s left eye”, a tall red figure.

[Angel’s Left Eye: It should be attached to the left eye socket. There is no cost to maintaining the magic effect. The equipment cannot be removed.]

[When someone is about to betray you, he will be highlighted immediately in your field of vision and displayed through obstacles (so this effect can be used without opening the left eye)]

Annan whispered, “Protect me.”

Fortunately, the hood covered his expression, so Annan’s complicated expression was not seen by Justice.

That was because Annan saw it clearly.

Opposite him, the enemy who triggered the curse “angel’s left eye”.

His figure was exactly the same as that of Justice standing beside him.

The next moment, a scorching red spinning axe was hurled over at a forty-five-degree angle in the air.

Like a flash of lightning, the axe swung past Justin at the front, approaching Annan’s head in the blink of an eye.

Sure enough, the boss is Justice. I have guessed it right.

This was the first thought that came to Annan’s mind.

—This Main Tank is trash.

This thought came to Annan’s mind when he saw that Justice hadn’t reacted at all—or rather, as if he hadn’t seen the axe.

This axe smelled like wine.

This was the last thought that came into Annan’s mind as the throwing axe got closer.

There wasn’t any pain.

However, Annan’s visions suddenly went dark when the axe approached his eyes.

“Um?” Annan sighed, and he slowly opened his eyes.

He did not die.

When Annan opened his eyes, he noticed he was sitting at the table. It was just like when he was in school. With his arms folded on the table, he fell asleep lying on his arms.

Annan could even see red marks printed on his arms.

This slender arm looked like that of an underage person.

Annan raised his head and looked around.

This place seemed to be a library, but it was not huge… at least not as big as Swamp’s Black Tower. There were also some people around him, all young people in their teenage years.

Behind Annan was a girl with long dark blue hair who hurried over.

Noticing that Annan woke up, she asked in a clear and joyful voice in disbelief,

“Freder? You’re awake!”

The girl looked no more than 14 years old.

She looked at Annan with a concerned expression, even a hint of admiration.

Is she Ingrid?

“Ingrid?” Annan pretended to be sleepy, rubbed his eyes, and asked subconsciously.

“That’s brilliant, Freder!”

In response to Annan’s probing attempt, Ingrid did not take any strange actions.

She lowered her voice and exclaimed, “You actually woke up from a nightmare by yourself!”

“Ah, I’m lucky…” Annan grunted.

His heart moved.

Nightmare… What nightmare?

“I’ll help you find the professor to seek help, and the professor will come over in a while. You have to explain to him that you fell into a nightmare.” Ingrid said bitterly to Annan.

Before “Frederick” could respond, he heard a rather energetic voice, “—Freder!”

Following the gaze, Annan noticed a hedgehog-haired teenager who appeared to be about 17 years old.

He stepped forward and happily patted Annan on the shoulder, “I knew you bastard is fine!”

“Fuck…”

At this moment, Annan suddenly felt a slight pain in his shoulder. This was a pain that was even filtered through Annan’s curse.

The familiar spot made Annan recognize him immediately.

Is this Justice?

“Justice, what are you doing!?”

Seeing Annan suddenly let out a cry of pain, Ingrid looked at Justice with dissatisfaction, “Be mindful!”

“Ah, sorry, Freder! I’m just too excited.”

Young Justice touched the back of his head shyly and embarrassingly, and then his eyes lit up, “Let me treat you to barbecue, Freder!

“I heard that a batch of high-quality beef from the Papal Kingdom has recently arrived. I have wanted to try it for a long time! So let the three of us go together!”

“Ah, then you both enjoy yourself.”

Hearing that it was about eating meat, Ingrid was a little tempted, but she rejected it, “I don’t like eating meat very much.”

This is a lie.

Annan captured her thoughts keenly.

Are you afraid of getting fat?

Annan took a deep breath and looked down at the books before him.

There were inscriptions in dark gold letters on the dark, stone-like tome.

The book’s title was the “Law of Similarity and Prophetic Dreams”.

Dream?

A noun suddenly appeared in Annan’s mind.

The gap between dreams!